Forget about Freeman
by Hotpoint
Summary: Your hour has come again Corporal Shephard, the wrong man in the right place can make all the difference in the world.
1. Chapter 1

_The Half Life games and the characters within don't belong to me. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

_"You're making the wrong assumption that a Marine by himself is outnumbered." : _General Peter Pace USMC, 2006

"_This is not some theoretical physicist we are discussing. Adrian Shephard is a highly trained Special Forces soldier from an elite unit and I have good reason to believe that in the intervening years since the Black Mesa incident he has been in a state which precluded any deterioration in his skills." : _ Administrator Wallace Breen, 2029

* * *

******The White Forest Inn - Eastern Europe – Earth under the Combine**

Adrian Shephard pulled off his Kevlar helmet and wrenching off his respirator as he fell to his knees he promptly threw up on the wooden floor. Fortunately perhaps he hadn't eaten much more than the occasional candy bar for what must have been days, so the mess wasn't as bad as it could have been, but the painful retching against an empty stomach continued for far too long until the feeling of indescribable _wrongness_faded and his head stopped swimming.

When he was able to once again collect himself Shephard staggered back to his feet and half stumbled away from the pool of vomit, eventually finding some support in the form of a wall which he leaned against gratefully. 'Okay Marine, shake it off and take stock of the situation' he ordered himself aloud once his mind caught up with his digestive tract in terms of recovery.

'Where the hell are we and how did we get here?' Shephard now asked, spitting on the floor to try and get some of the bad taste from his mouth. 'No fucking idea' he replied to himself, spitting again before pushing himself clear of the wall and forcing himself to stop trembling like he had been. It looked like he was in a basement, or maybe a small wine cellar judging from the racks and the number of broken bottles scattered around, and there was a wooden staircase leading up in one direction and some stone steps heading up in another the daylight from that way lighting up the room.

'Alright shit-for-brains where _were_ we before we were _here_?' the marine now asked himself as his head cleared a little more allowing greater clarity of thought. 'Black Mesa' he answered then his eyes widened as memories came flooding back. 'Weapon, need a weapon' he said frantically as a kaleidoscope of images of frenzied combat, horror, pain and fear flashed through his mind.

He was still wearing his Power Combat Vest but when he clutched at the holster hanging from the belt of the LC2 equipment harness he wore over it he found his Desert Eagle was missing. Similarly the shoulder holster rig under his left armpit which had once held his Berretta 92F was empty and even his combat knife was absent from its sheath. 'That fucking Fed took them off me' he suddenly recalled as his memories trawled up his last moments at Black Mesa, being hit by an expanding pulse of energy and then finding himself on what seemed to be a V-22 travelling through a changing void. Although unarmed he did find his canteen where it should be and taking it out unscrewed the top and rinsed his mouth out with water, spitting that too on the ground before swallowing his next mouthful.

Returning his canteen to its pouch Shephard concentrated on what the creepy government guy had said to him only moments ago. _"Please don't think that I've been avoiding you, a great many matters require my attention in these... troubled times. I do hope you understand, and now I require a further indulgence on your part: I cannot close my report until every loose end has been tied up. The biggest embarrassment has been the Black Mesa facility, but I think that's finally taken care of itself."_

'You nuked it you prick' Adrian Shephard snarled, interrupting his own memories as he remembered seeing the bastard reactivating the Mark IV warhead through a pane of thick bullet-proof glass. Shephard had only defused the thing scant minutes beforehand, eliminating the Black Ops who had first set the nuclear device counting down to detonation, and the enraged marine had pounded on the glass and screamed obscenities at the man undoing his good work.

_"But there is still the lingering matter of witnesses. I admit I have a fascination with those who adapt and survive against all odds—they rather remind me of myself. If for no other reason, I have argued to preserve you for a time. While I believe a civil servant like yourself understands the importance of... discretion, my employers are not quite so trusting and rather than continually subject you to the irresistible human temptation of telling all, we have decided to... convey you somewhere where you can do no possible harm, and where no harm can come to you. I'm sure you can imagine that there are worse alternatives..."_

That at least was true, Shephard had become _very_creative when it came to imagining worse alternatives during the period between his heading out from Santego Base with the rest of the HECU and his eventually getting back out of Black Mesa alive somehow against all the odds.

_"Of course once the cat is long out of the bag there is no longer any need to worry about cover-ups or secrets, and in any case a valuable resource never used is ultimately a valuable resource wasted."_

Shephard frowned, he couldn't recall the guy saying that to him before.

_"And as I already told someone else earlier today, who I had also extracted from the maelstrom of Black Mesa, I am not one to squander my investments."_

He's in my head, Shephard realised with a start as his memories of the man talking had merged seamlessly with new words being spoken to him directly. 'Who are you?' the Marine said out loud, 'Where am I?'

_"Your hour has come again Corporal Shephard, the wrong man in the right place can make all the difference in the world. I am certain you will not disappoint. In order to aid you in the task which fate and I have set for you I have returned a few items of government property that you will find invaluable I'm sure, and as a gesture of good will a bonus too. What use is a shepherd without the companionship and assistance of his dog after all?" _

'Answer me!' Shephard bellowed but no reply came as his cry echoed off the walls. He waited for a short while then muttering dark thoughts and oaths aloud about what he was going to do to that skinny runt when he got hold of him the marine retrieved his helmet and respirator. 'Nowhere to go from here but up I guess' he said to himself resignedly, putting his helmet back on but not his gas mask which he instead secured to a velco loop hanging off his belt so it hung by his side.

Cautiously climbing the slightly rickety looking wooden stairs Shephard found himself in what appeared to be the dilapidated lobby of what might once have been a rather small and quaint but perhaps classy hotel. The furniture, fixtures and fittings were gone, places on the walls which likely once held paintings were bare, and the overall impression was of a building that hadn't just seen better days, it had seen _much_better days.

The myriad bullet holes that peppered the place were of far more concern to Shephard however, especially as they looked all too recent, much like the equally concerning blood splatters on the floor. The windows and the double doors leading outside looked like they could have only been smashed in within the last few days and there were more than a few shiny brass cartridge cases scattered around to be seen outside as well.

Hairs standing up on the back of his neck as Black Mesa induced paranoia kicked-in Shephard bent down and picked up one of the casings to examine it. '4.6 millimetre' he noted before flicking it away again. That was a fairly unusual calibre he knew, basically a scaled down assault-rifle round designed for high-velocity and maximum penetration at the cost of stopping power against targets that weren't wearing body armour. 'Black Ops?' he wondered. Those guys and girls got to play with all sorts of interesting toys and his recent encounters with them had placed the bastards high up on his shit-list.

Looking outside briefly had confirmed that at least he wasn't in any part of the Black Mesa facility, or anywhere near it for that matter. Trees, clear blue skies and a few more buildings were the only things around and it was extremely quiet despite more indications of recent fighting in the form of blood trails and smeared pools of blood where Shephard surmised casualties had lain before recovery.

Before scouting the area surrounding it Shephard decided to properly investigate the building he was in. The lobby led to other rooms on the ground floor that showed similar signs of battle but what immediately grabbed his undivided attention on turning a corner into what that might have once been the dining room was what he found laid out neatly on a large grimy rug there. He checked around for a moment to make sure this wasn't just bait for a possible ambush before gratefully starting to collect his weapons and ammunition that had been left their for him to recover.

They weren't _all_there though Shephard noted. The G-Man, or whatever he was, hadn't returned all of the hardware he had taken him but it was still more than enough firepower to cause his morale to go up considerably and help calm his nerves. The HECU Marine quickly retrieved his trusty Desert Eagle, checking it was loaded and verifying the laser-sight still functioned before returning it to his holster with satisfaction. His backup pistol, a USMC issue Beretta M9A1, was then slid smoothly into the shoulder-holster under his left arm, he had obtained both items from a dead officer and he was somehow more comfortable handling the Corps pistol than he was one of the Glocks the Black Mesa Security Guards had carried.

Sidearms secured the two bandoliers of buckshot Shephard now picked up and looped crosswise over his chest were unfortunately half empty, only holding less than sixty shotgun shells between them. The SPAS 12 they were there to supply however was itself still fully loaded, holding another eight rounds, and he was happy enough with that for now. It was unlikely that many possible foes would be able to ignore even a single discharge of 12-gauge buckshot to the face after all, indeed hostile alien interlopers of many species had come off very much the worse on meeting the pump-action.

'I like to keep this handy for close encounters' Sheppard joked to himself, still grinning at the line as he secured the SPAS 12 to his assault pack and picked up his combat knife. Finding it still carrying some unnatural yellow blood on the blade he wiped it clean as best he could on the rug then returned the knife to the sheath for it hanging from his belt on the opposite side as the Eagle. He recalled the relief he had felt when he had found the knife conveniently buried in the back of one of the first dead aliens he had came across. 'So much easier to handle than that damn wrench' he muttered, now looking disdainfully at the unwieldy great thing lying on the rug and wondering what kind of sense of humour had caused the G-Man to return the pipe-wrench but not his goddamn sniper rifle. 'The motto is "Every Marine a Rifleman" not every marine a fucking plumber' he complained, deciding to leave it there unlike the last of the _real_weapons left on the rug.

Firing the same ammunition as the Beretta the modified MP5 sub-machinegun the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit equipped its men with was, unlike the wrench, something that Shephard had been more than happy to see again. Taking it up and hanging the weapon by its strap over his shoulder he made a mental note to remember to properly field strip and clean the thing after making sure the area was secure. Unfortunately despite a reasonable quantity of 9mm for the MP5 which he stuffed into his ammunition pouches he found he only had the one round left for the custom model MP5's integral grenade launcher and would have to be careful not to waste it.

'Okay, so no hand-grenades, no sniper-rifle, no SAW, no rocket-launcher, no explosives and none of the weird-ass shit either' Sheppard noted to himself sadly then shrugged. 'On the plus side I nearly killed myself hauling all that crap up and down ladders and trying to run carrying it' he remembered, putting a more positive spin on the situation.

Now reassuringly armed he was about to check upstairs when a sudden noise, muffled but seemingly close-by, caused him to instantly draw his Desert Eagle and bring it up ready to fire.

The noise continued and increased in frequency as Shephard determined it was coming from the old refrigerator in the kitchen across from the dining room. 'If you're something that is planning to try and jump on my head then think again' he addressed whatever it was inside there as he reached for the handle latch with his free hand, .357 magnum automatic held steadily in the other.

A combination of quick reactions, finely honed skills and hard training had kept Shephard alive through the total clusterfuck of the Black Mesa mission, but if he hadn't also been possessed of a near-suicidal sense of curiosity he would never have found his way out. In a more superstitious age observers might have concluded that the sheer amount of luck indicated by his habit of sticking his nose into places that someone more rational wouldn't, but nonetheless always seeming to come out ahead somehow, was proof that the gods of fortune were watching over him. Putting the possibility of divine intervention aside by the standards of any era he was undoubtedly a freakishly lucky bastard at times and proved you could go a long way if fuelled by a combination of good fortune, serendipity and plenty of ammunition.

Opening the refrigerator door a tiny crack and looking inside cautiously Shephard had barely enough time to get a glimpse of the occupant before the door was pushed open suddenly from inside and he cried out in alarm as something that should have been on another world launched itself at him.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_Well this is what happens if I play Half Life 2: Episode 2 just after a quick bash at Half Life: Opposing Force. I couldn't shake off the notion of dropping Corporal Adrian Shephard into the Combine occupied Earth that exists twenty years into his future._

_For the benefit of the unfamiliar (or forgetful) Shephard was a member of the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit that Gordon Freeman struggled against in Half Life. He successfully fought his way through Black Mesa fighting against Black Ops soldiers trying to cover up the situation, the same aliens that Freeman was fighting elsewhere in Black Mesa plus an entirely different group of hostile aliens known as "Race X" that were also trying to invade Earth via Xen._

_Shephard wasn't blessed with a HEV Suit to help keep him alive like Freeman had but he had his Powered Combat Vest, a respirator (with built-in night-vision goggles) and a helmet at least. His myriad weapons were taken from him by the G-Man at the end of Opposing Force but now he's been taken out of storage again the G-Man has seen fit to give him a few choice items back._

_The White Forest Inn is a location in Half Life 2: Episode 2 where Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance were ambushed by a large contingent of Combine Overwatch supported by Hunters. The G-Man has dropped Shephard off there a few days later after the place has been cleared up a little (or cleared out)._

___Wake up Corporal Shephard. Wake up and smell the ashes._


	2. Chapter 2

_The Half Life games and the characters within don't belong to me. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

"_The deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his rifle." _General John Pershing, United States Army, 1918

"_The deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his... um... shockroach." _Colonel Odessa Cubbage, City 17 Resistance, 2029

* * *

**The White Forest Inn - Eastern Europe – Earth under the Combine**

Shephard instinctively pulled the trigger of his Desert Eagle but the shot went wide as the creature leaping up at him knocked his pistol out of his hand and then secured itself firmly to his right forearm. It was gripping on for dear life with its multiple limbs and seemed to be responding to Shephard's involuntary cry of alarm with a series of loud clicks of its own.

'Jesus Christ' Shephard exclaimed. 'You nearly gave me a fucking heart attack' he told the large and extremely unattractive insectoid alien which had once again taken up its former residence, clearly having no intention of leaving again.

The bug looked around as best it could and then relaxed its hold long enough to move into a more comfortable position before settling. Its six legs secured it to the arm of its human host but as before it didn't hinder Shephard's movements too much once it found the appropriate spot to set up home.

The marine looked at his passenger, chuckled and then bent down to pick up his pistol. 'You alone in there?' Shephard asked it, not expecting a reply as he checked to see if the refrigerator contained either of the other alien companions he had picked up at Black Mesa. 'Just you then' he continued, finding nothing else in there except a few bags of ice which had kept the insectoid alien chilled and relatively dormant despite the lack of electricity.

'You're freezing, you know that' Shephard informed the alien which he guessed was probably enjoying his body heat after its chilly incarceration. 'I guess you can live a little longer on your own if you're kept cool' he theorised having seen the things brethren previously die quite quickly before once they detached themselves from a dead host.

The first time that Shephard had ended up with the bug stubbornly insisting on adopting him as a new residence the marine had understandably freaked. Until the thing detached itself from the corpse of the large bipedal alien it had previously belonged to the marine hadn't even realised it wasn't actually part of the same animal but then it had leaped at him and held on tightly, failing to let go despite Shephard's frantic attempts to dislodge it or pull it off with his other hand.

Just as he was about to start hacking at the bug with his combat knife Shephard had somehow accidentally managed to induce it to perform the task that it had presumably been biologically engineered to carry out. The alien had by reflex fired one of the bolts of electrical energy its former master had previously been shooting at Adrian before a burst of bullets from an MP5 going the other way had ended the firefight and this revelation caused the marine to pause before going ahead with his plan to jam in the blade.

It wasn't actually hurting him Shephard had realised as he tried to get it to fire again and soon succeeded, firing three rapid bolts of the miniature ball-lightning this time. After a little experimentation it became apparent it could fire ten times in quick succession but then it needed to rest while it... "recharged" Adrian had guessed was the right word.

Knife still in his left hand Shephard had stared bemusedly at the bug, and then to his near amazement the bug's head turned towards him a little and seemed to regard the face of its replacement dwelling with mild interest for a moment before going back to looking around the room they were in instead. To be honest Shephard might have _still_ cut the thing off if a headcrab with poor timing hadn't chosen that moment to leap out at him, only to be shot out of the air by reflex by a Marine Corporal and his newly acquired combination pet and sci-fi style energy blaster. The alien earned itself an instant reprieve as pieces of headcrab splattered the floor as Shephard, shrugged, thought "what the hell" and put his knife away.

A very intrigued scientist Adrian had encountered shortly afterwards had insisted on examining the creature and informed him that the xenobiologists involved in studying the various races encountered during portal travel had been calling the species a "Shockroach". They were thought to have been created by the larger aliens with two legs, four arms and one eye that carried them and which had been trying to kill Shephard most of that day. The fact a shockroach could only survive a short time without a live host was considered likely a failsafe of sorts that had been genetically-engineered into the weaponised bug.

Several hours later and after racking up an impressive body-count between them the marine had decided to name the shockroach "Shannon" realising he had already been talking to it, albeit in a series of distinctly one-way conversations. It's surprising how fast you can get used to just about anything in the right circumstances, even having a plasma-shooting alien insect clamped to your arm, and Shephard had become quite fond of the thing to be honest. This might have been in part because pretty much all the _humans_ he had encountered in Black Mesa tended to die shortly afterwards and having company, any kind of company, was good for morale. For that matter Shannon had a lot more personality and a better temperament than that damn barnacle which kept trying to bite Shephard's fingers too which also helped establish a rapport.

Closing the refrigerator Sheppard holstered his Desert Eagle. 'Just so you know, we're not in Kansas any more Toto' he told the alien. 'Of course _anywhere_ has to be a step up from that shithole we were in' he continued, heading towards the stairs.

There were a few locked bedrooms on the top floor of the two-story building but after kicking in the doors Shephard found nothing of interest except a few discarded towels, one of which being in not too poor a condition so he decided to keep it. Shephard then also found an old newspaper printed in what he guessed was Russian from the Cyrillic lettering. 'Tourist left it behind?' he wondered aloud, stuffing it into a pocket in case he needed it to light a fire with, or perhaps use as toilet paper.

Other than more brass casings, and plenty more bullet holes to see, there were also broken crates marked as having contained supplies which looked new but for the most part the building held no clues as to where he was or what had been happening there shortly before he arrived. Expanding his search to the other buildings nearby did result in Shephard finding something intriguing in the extreme as he came across both an automated medical aid station and a charging outlet mounted on the wall of a small structure that was similar to the types used in Black Mesa, or at least it had a compatible power socket.

'Guess we weren't dropped off here at random then?' Adrian Shephard wryly observed as he checked the outlet and found it still had a little charge left that he and his PCV could benefit from.

The HECU had given Black Mesa a design requirement for their Powered Combat Vest to take a charge from just about anything that could output electrical energy (regardless of voltage) so plugging in his PCV and draining the unit completely dry wasn't a problem. This took Shephard's already partially charged PCV up beyond sixty percent of maximum power which he knew from experience was enough to get him through a fair deal of high-intensity combat alive.

Now well-armed and decently armoured to boot Shephard decided to check out the last few structures in the vicinity and he began making his way up a road that snaked around towards some buildings which overlooked what he now knew from the sign outside was the "White Forest Inn". Passing several abandoned cars which were missing their tyres as well as their engines he frowned at their number plates. They certainly weren't American cars and the writing on the gas pumps he found outside a small garage that was one of the buildings wasn't in English either. 'Where the fuck are we anyway?' he asked rhetorically, poking his head inside another building and finding the remains of some new-looking, though unidentifiable equipment that had been mostly stripped out.

Smoke was rising from what might have been a city in the distance and Shephard sighed as he realised he might have to walk there to find some answers. 'No point in standing around here hoping someone will turn up and offer me a ride I guess' he said to himself before raising his right arm to bring the shockroach to his level. 'I wish someone was going to carry _me_ to where we're going you lazy bastard' he said to it before lowering his arm again.

Just as he was about to set off towards the city Shephard heard something in the distance and stopped to listen, it was getting louder and he soon identified it as a engine doing too many revs judging by the whine. 'Maybe we _are_ going to get a ride' Shephard said brightly. 'Let me do the talking okay?' he instructed the alien on his arm and taking out the towel he had found in the Inn he threw it over his right arm to sensibly hide Shannon from sight. 'Stop moving and keep quiet' he hissed at the shockroach which clearly objected to the situation.

Noriko Chijimatsu was grinning as she hurtled along the highway towards White Forest. Ten or so kilometres back she had crashed through a flimsy combine roadblock manned by CP's and then her Scout Car had easily outpaced the Combine APC that had attempted to give chase, its driver abandoning the pursuit once she hit the turbo demonstrating he had no chance in hell of catching up.

Until very recently the mechanic at Shorepoint Base Noriko had received orders to deliver the new buggy she had only just finished putting together to the main resistance camp at White Forest and she had gleefully decided to put the car through its paces en-route. Normally she would have been worried about attracting the attention of a Hunter-Killer Chopper, or even worse a Synth Gunship, but ever since the famously unstoppable Gordon Freeman had managed to shut down the super-portal to the other Combine worlds the enemy had been carefully husbanding their resources. If you're not expecting reinforcements you don't waste the assets you've got left chasing jerry-built beach-buggies across the countryside, you keep them back for the big push.

Passing a sign that said she was nearing the White Forest Inn Noriko slowed down because she knew from the map that there was a fairly nasty bend or two in the road coming up. She also knew that Freeman himself and Vance's daughter had taken on and beaten a Combine Patrol at the Inn only a couple of days before but she didn't plan to stop and look around for discarded weapons or ammo. There really was no point in stopping, she wanted to get to where she was going before dark and resistance fighters from the nearby base would have already recovered anything worth having anyway she reasoned. The corpses of the defeated Overwatch grunts would have been most likely thrown off the nearest cliff or dragged into the woods as a lucky find for the next carrion eater that passed by.

Looking down at her map again for a moment Noriko nearly swerved off the road when she saw the man in the unusual uniform and armour standing there holding his left arm out with his thumb up, like hitchhiking was something anybody had done in twenty years. More by reflex than as a result of thinking the situation through clearly she jammed on the brakes and came skidding past him to a halt stopping fifteen or twenty metres further on.

'Thanks for stopping' Shephard called out in a friendly manner to the little asian chick in the buggy. 'You don't speak English by any chance do you?' he asked hopefully.

Noriko hit the release clip on her seatbelt and reaching for her MP7 she partially stood up in her seat and turned around to face the stranger. 'Who the hell are you?' she responded before she noticed the respirator hanging from his gear. 'Drop the guns you CP asshole' she ordered bringing up her own weapon and levelling it at him. He must be wearing some new Civil Protection uniform she decided, getting ready to put a burst of 4.6mm rounds into his head.

'I would but it would take too long to pick them all back up again' Shephard replied, forcing himself to smile and look as little of a threat as he could while his instincts screamed at him to do something violent in response to having a machine-pistol pointed at him. 'I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just trying to find out where I am and ideally hitch a lift to somewhere I can report in' he told her. The remainder of the HECU would likely be overjoyed to see him, he thought, only a small minority of his unit had managed to get back out of Black Mesa alive before the last V22 Osprey left.

'Do I _look_ like I'm someone that's going to help one of you traitorous bastards get back to your friends?' Noriko replied sarcastically.

Shephard narrowed his eyes. 'I'm not a traitor' he responded curtly. 'I'm a United States Marine and our motto is Semper Fi, Always Faithful' he declared proudly.

Noriko couldn't help but laugh. 'Don't they teach you CP pricks to make up more convincing stories when you're captured?' she asked rhetorically. 'There hasn't been a US Military, or a United States for that matter since before you were out of diapers and all the aliens started showing up' she told him, accurately estimating his age at early twenties.

Adrian Shephard opened his mouth to reply then stopped when her words sank in, having fought off an alien invasion and visited other dimensions he was fully prepared to accept just about _anything_ was possible. 'Okay this is going to sound like a really odd question' he began slowly after deciding she sounded like she was telling the truth, 'but what year is this?' he queried.

The resistance mechanic looked at him incredulously. 'You're kidding?' she replied.

'Just humour me okay sweetheart' Shephard requested impatiently.

'It's 2029' Noriko informed him, frowning.

'YOU LOUSY, ROTTEN, STINKING, SUIT-WEARING, BRIEFCASE CARRYING BASTARD' Shephard bellowed into the sky before redirecting his attention on the girl. 'Sorry, had to get that off my chest' he apologised to the now shocked Noriko. 'Right, so you say there's aliens everywhere?' he asked in what was now an inexplicably calm tone of voice. The Corps drummed into you the manta "Improvise, adapt and overcome" and so he did, HECU Drill Instructor Barnes would have been proud.

'Yes' Noriko replied, now staring at him.

'You mean just a few or some kind of full-scale invasion?' Shephard wanted to know.

'Um, at first it was just a few' Noriko told him, 'I mean that would have been back when I was in kindergarten, but then just after the portals started opening everywhere the Combine arrived and we lost the Seven Hours War.'

'The Seven Hours War?' the marine queried.

'It's how long it took them to pretty much conquer the world, or at least how long it was until most of our armies were wiped out and that prick Breen negotiated our surrender' Noriko explained. 'The Combine took over the planet and a few of us in the Resistance have been trying to get rid of them ever since' she said, wondering if this guy was nuts.

Shephard raised his eyebrows. 'I know this is a real long-shot' he said, 'but that wasn't _Wallace_ Breen was it?' he asked. It wasn't really that common a name and he didn't believe much in coincidences.

'Yeah, the guy that ran Black Mesa West' Noriko confirmed.

'I know what he did' Shephard responded, shaking his head. 'That fucking place is out to get me I swear' he muttered to himself. 'Crap, sorry Shan' he said, 'I guess I don't need to hide you any more if people are actually used to seeing aliens' he said, removing the towel from his right arm.

'What the fuck is that?' Noriko cried out in alarm, seeing the alien insect on the strangers arm for the first time. She had been wondering what the bulge was was under the towel but thought it was probably just another gun or knife. He was certainly carrying enough of the things.

'Never seen a shockroach before then?' Shephard assumed correctly based on her reaction. 'Don't worry, it's not hurting me or controlling my mind or anything, it just shoots things when I want it to' he told her. 'I call it Shannon because it's gender-neutral and I've got no idea if Shan is a boy-bug or a girl-bug' he added, holding up his arm to let her get a better look at his passenger.

'Shoots things?' Noriko repeated, increasingly doubting the guy's sanity and now attributing that problem to the alien as she stared at it.

'Yes, like this' Shephard demonstrated, raising his arm some more, pointing it at a tree some distance off and then blowing a decently sized, charred smoking crater into the trunk with a single shot. He subsequently fired half a dozen more times off into the distance to demonstrate the range and rate-of-fire the shockroach was capable of.

Noriko blinked. 'And I thought Vortigaunts were the most useful aliens you could have around' she said, looking from the man to the thing on his arm and back again. It was sort-of like having a built-in AR2, she thought o herself. 'Who _are_ you?' she wanted to know.

'Corporal Adrian Shephard, Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, Marine Force Recon, USMC' he replied, deciding not to add his serial number, 'the thing that will probably freak you out as much as finding out the year did for me though is that from_my_ perspective less than a couple of hours ago I was in Black Mesa and it was 2009' he announced.

'Holy Shit you're like Gordon Freeman' Noriko exclaimed. 'I'm Noriko by the way' she introduced herself in return, 'Noriko Chijimatsu.'

'Freeman?' Shephard responded, concentrating only on the beginning of what she had said. 'Gordon _Freeman_?' he said in shock. First Breen now Freeman he thought incredulously. Who next, he wondered, that fat Security Guard Otis?

'He like appeared again from nowhere too a few weeks back' Noriko replied, 'still looking exactly like he did twenty years ago at Black Mesa according to the people that knew him back then' she continued, frankly amazed by the situation she had found herself in. 'I met him, he's _amazing_' she stated enthusiastically, 'he's the entire reason we've got the Combine on the run now' she said with utter certainty. 'The Vortigaunts always said he'd come back to us, that he was the "One Free Man" that would defeat the Combine and save the Earth and they were _right_!'

Shephard frowned. 'Freeman is alive, he only just appeared after two decades and he's around here somewhere?' he said to himself slowly, ignoring the girls gushing about the asshole who, from what the marine had been able to establish, had killed almost as many of Shephard's friends and fellow marines as the fucking aliens had managed. He was probably the son-of-a-bitch that caused the whole mess to begin with too.

'Did you know him?' Noriko asked. 'I mean do you know him?' she corrected her syntax.

'I was in the same room as him once at Black Mesa' Shephard replied carefully, almost caught him too before he escaped through that damn portal he thought to himself in annoyance. I think I might need that thing I left down there after all, he decided, looking back at the Inn and imagining the bastard's expression when he saw a HECU Marine standing right in front of him wearing a shit-eating grin and holding a fucking great pipe-wrench. 'Okay, Noriko take me to your leader, you can fill me in on the last twenty years on the way' he told her, his mood suddenly a great deal better.

* * *

_**Note from the Author:**_

___The Shockroach from Opposing Force was an alien weapon/animal that was deployed by Shocktroopers, the grunts of Race X. When a shocktrooper was killed the shockroach bonded to it would go looking for a new host (it couldn't live long without one) and one chose to latch onto Adrian Shephard._

_Basically a large, very ugly insect that wouldn't let go the great redeeming feature of the shockroach was that it could rapid-fire charges of electrical energy (think ball-lightning/plasma) and never ramn out of ammunition (though it had to recharge for a while if you fired it ten times in quick succession)._

_Noriko was the resistance mechanic at Shorepoint Base who provides Gordon Freeman with the Scout Car he uses to make his way up along the coast. The Combine ends up capturing that vehicle (after Freeman doesn't need it any more) but I'm supposing that wasn't the only Scout Car the resistance has._

___The Combine used Hunter Choppers and Synth Gunships to patrol and as air-support but after the events of Episode 2 (where Freeman prevented the Combine opening a super-portal to bring through reinforcements) I'm making the assumption that they've shifted to the strategic defensive for now and they're not flying around patrolling as much for risk of losing more of the aircraft they still have in-theatre to resistance laser-guided RPG's._**  
**


	3. Chapter 3

_The Half Life games and the characters within don't belong to me. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

"_The Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand._" Richard Harding Davis, War Correspondent, 1885

"_No you are wrong the Freeman is not our only hope. Through the vortessence we sense... there is another._" Uriah the Vortigaunt, 2029

* * *

******The White Forest Inn - Eastern Europe – Earth under the Combine**

'It's not really that far' Noriko told him. 'Just follow the road down that way and you'll come to a tunnel' she said, showing him on her old map. 'Once you've got through that it's not too much further to the stream that goes past the base' she continued, pointing at the blue line that wound its way down from the higher peaks. 'They say you can't miss the base, look out for the big aerials' she continued. 'You might want to wait until the morning though, it'll be dark soon' she advised.

'Or you _could_ just give me a ride' Shephard replied sardonically.

'Only one seat' Noriko pointed out. 'If you tried to hang off the back all that extra weight on the rear axel would lift the front of the scout car and screw up the steering.'

Shephard frowned. 'I guess I could tie my pack to the front of the buggy to balance it' he suggested.

'That might help a little' Noriko conceded, it looked damn heavy and she could understand why he wouldn't want to walk any distance carrying it.

The marine had another thought. 'Or you could sit on my lap' he offered another alternative.

'What?' Noriko responded, looking at him askance.

'It looks like you've got that seat set way forward so you can reach the pedals' Shephard noted. 'Push it all the way back and if I secure my pack on the top there and take off my PCV, I mean my body armour, I reckon we could fit.'

'I am _not_ sitting on your lap' Noriko told him flatly.

'It would be more comfortable than me sitting on yours' Shephard told her. 'I promise not to enjoy it too much' he added, grinning.

Noriko wondered how to phrase it politely but then decided that being direct was probably a better idea. 'I don't want to be that close to you because you smell' she told him honestly. 'I mean _really_ bad' she continued. 'I mean what the hell have you been doing?' she asked.

'I've been swimming in raw sewage' Shephard replied. 'I love it' he added before realising that a quote taken from a film made over a decade before she was born might not be funny. 'You'd smell bad too if you'd been wading through the Black Mesa waste-water system' he defended himself.

'The City 17 Canals smell better than you do and they've usually got decomposing corpses floating in them' Noriko commented and it wasn't hyperbole by any means, the man smelled rank.

'Alright, alright I get the point' Shephard conceded the issue. 'You'll get used to it' he suggested. 'I guess _I_ did.'

'I don't _want_ to get used to it' Noriko told him flatly. 'Alright we'll try putting your pack on the front of the car and you get on the back' she conceded. 'If I drive fast enough you might air out a little' she added optimistically.

'Just don't go over any bumps in the road because I'll come off' Shephard told her, starting to take off his modular equipment harness. He had a bungee cord in his pack that should suffice to secure the thing in place.

'Worth remembering if I can't take the smell any more' Noriko quipped, earning a glare. 'Hey for a guy that says he hasn't washed or shaved in twenty years you could be worse I guess' she told him. 'Not _much_ worse...'

'Don't push it' Shephard warned. 'I saved the world from an alien invasion and I think that should earn me more respect and get me cut a little more slack' he said in annoyance.

Noriko began to help him secure his pack. 'If you stopped the invasion then how come we're under alien occupation now then?' she asked.

'Different aliens' Shephard explained.

'Sure, right' Noriko replied, clearly less than fully convinced.

'If you're going to doubt my word I'm surprised you're taking me to your base' Shephard remarked as they finished securing his pack. Shephard left his SPAS 12 attached to it but opted to keep his MP5 with him.

'The Combine have attacked it before so even if you work for them it's not like they don't know where it is already' Noriko replied. The Vorts there will know if you're telling the truth or not, they can see into the nature of things.'

'Vorts?' Shephard queried as the girl got back into the driver's seat and he made his way to the back of the buggy.

'Vortigaunts' Noriko responded. 'Aliens that fight on our side against the Combine' she explained. 'They've got this kind of telepathy or something' she told him. 'Other weird powers too like healing or generating electricity and firing it like a bolt of lightning.'

'Lightning?' Shepard repeated quizzically. 'These things don't have two fingers on each hand ending in claws, backwards knees and one huge red eye with three more little ones do they?' he checked.

'So you've seen them before?' Noriko replied. I guess he would have if he was at Black Mesa when they first starting coming through to Earth she reasoned.

'Mainly through gun-sights while they yelled "Die" at me and tried to electrocute my ass' Shephard told her.

'Oh yeah right, that's the ones who were slaves of something else' Noriko recalled. 'Their old master was trying to conquer Earth because he was running from the Combine' she said. 'They say that Gordon Freeman killed their old boss, which freed them from it, but their homeworld and most of their species are still enslaved by the Combine' she told him.

Shephard climbed on the back of the buggy, his pack at the front acting as a fairly adequate counterweight as he leaned forward and held onto the metal frame as best he could. 'I'm going to need someone to talk me through all this carefully or else write it down' he decided. 'Take it slowly okay' he requested. 'And stop when we get to the other side of the Inn, I need to jump off and collect something I left down there.'

'It's not another gun is it?' Noriko asked, putting the Scout Car into car and easing her foot down on the accelerator.

'No it's a pipe wrench' Shephard told her.

As they set off down the slope Noriko tried to get a feel of the steering. It was a little light because of the extra weight at the back but not too bad. 'So what do you need a pipe wrench for?' she asked.

'For hitting things with' Shephard explained. 'Bring one of those down hard on something's skull and it'll drop like a ton of bricks' he said. 'And it doesn't run out of ammunition which makes it handy' he added, wisely opting not to mention he was planning to beat down that jerk Freeman with it.

Noriko took the tight bend at the bottom of the slope as gently as she could. 'Wouldn't a crowbar or something be better for that?' she wondered.

Shephard snorted. 'Crowbars are for pussies' he declared as they reached the Inn and started to drive around the building. 'Okay stop here I won't be long' he told her, jumping off the back.

'You know I could just drive off and leave you here' Noriko called after him as he entered the building.

'I don't think you're the type even if I do need a shower' Shephard yelled back, retrieving his wrench from where he had previously chosen to leave it.

'You don't need a shower, you need to be scrubbed down' Noriko told him earnestly as he returned holding a large red wrench which he quickly stuffed in his pack before clambering aboard the scout car once more.

'Well if that's you volunteering then...' Shephard began before having to cling on for dear life as the girl hit the gas pedal a little too enthusiastically. This indicated to the marine that the answer to his hypothetical question was a resounding no so he didn't bother finishing the sentence.

They hadn't got too much further when Noriko stopped the car again. 'That looks more dangerous than they told me' she said. Turning off the engine and getting out, Shephard following her to get a better look.

The road looped around to the left then down the hill but it looked like explosives had been used to render it impassable. An alternative means of extremely rapid descent had been set up instead in the form of a ramp which would catapult a vehicle down the steep slope to rejoin the road again below. It wasn't exactly the most appealing prospect. 'They told you?' Shephard queried, inspecting the ramp and then the slope unenthusiastically.

'The Resistance wanted to make it hard for the Overwatch to ride APC's down towards White Forest Base' Noriko explained. 'They're not really built to make jumps and the centre-of-gravity on them means they aren't very stable on an incline' she said. 'I think we'll be okay but you might want to walk down.'

'You're going to try coming off the ramp?' Shephard asked in surprise. 'You could flip as soon as you hit the ground' he warned.

'It'll be fine' Noriko replied with more confidence than she felt. 'Might be worth you taking your pack too, I might come in too nose-first with it there.'

'Shit' Shephard swore. 'Let me drive, you walk' he said.

'It's my car' Noriko replied.

'You could get hurt' Shephard noted.

'No more than you could and it's _my_ car' Noriko repeated. 'There's no argument here' she added sternly.

Shephard sighed. 'Everyone I meet dies five minutes later' he muttered to himself. 'Well at least put this on' he said, unbuckling his helmet strap, taking it off and handing it to her. 'Don't sniff it, put it on your head' he ordered as she took it off him reluctantly.

'It doesn't fit' Noriko told him, doing as she was told.

'Just tighten up the strap so it doesn't come off before your head hits something hard' Shephard replied. 'And I still think you should let me do this' he said as he removed his pack from the front of the buggy.

Noriko took another look at the ramp and the slope and swallowed. 'Just make sure to tell everyone at White Forest how cool this looked when we get there' she requested.

'I'll miss out the part about retrieving your mangled corpse from the wreckage so I could bury you' Shephard responded wryly, putting his pack on and heading off down the slope while Noriko got back into the scout car and put on her seatbelt. 'Don't bite your tongue off when you land' he shouted out as she backed up for a run at the ramp.

Making sure to keep out of the way Shephard trotted down the steep slope, barely keeping his own balance, and was near the bottom when he heard the engine on the scout-car being gunned. Shortly afterwards the high pitched whine of a turbo preceded the sight of a rattletrap beach-buggy hurling itself off a short ramp and down the hill, flying through the air for what seemed like an age before it crashed back to earth, careening to a halt on the road below. It had skidded sideways as it ploughed through the remains of some old crates but seemed intact.

"Hey what do you know, she lived" Shephard thought to himself in mild surprise as Noriko threw up her arms and yelled in triumph. 'That was great!' she exclaimed as he now rejoined her. 'I want to do it again' she added, grinning from ear to ear.

'How the hell would you get back up there?' Shephard asked reasonably.

'Well some other time then' Noriko replied with a shrug, the rush of adrenaline still buzzing through her system. 'Did you see me?' she asked. 'How long was I airborne?'

'Nowhere near as long as it bet it felt like from where you were sitting' Shephard told her. 'If you've got that out of your system then let's get going' he said. 'And I'll be definitely taking my helmet back now I've seen how you drive' he insisted.

The road made a couple more loops before reaching the very bottom of the incline, connecting with another wider carriageway which ran down a short narrow valley which ran between two tunnels cut into the hills at either end. 'We blew the tunnel there heading towards City 17 years ago so the Combine would have to take the long way round' Noriko explained, stopping the car and pointing at it. 'Once we go through the next tunnel up ahead we'll be almost on top of the base' she told him. 'It's rigged to blow too of course' she added.

'A few dozen guys could tie up a lot of infantry in this terrain' Shephard observed professionally, looking around. A small number of grunts backed by snipers and the odd RPG using the hills and trees would bleed an enemy unit hard if it tried to force its way through this area.

'That's kinda the idea' Noriko replied, putting the buggy into gear and getting underway once more. 'Every so often the Overwatch used to send a patrol into the hills but so few of them ever came back they didn't exactly try very hard after that to clear out the resistance holed up in here' she told him, raising her voice to be heard over the engine. 'They already had their plates full trying to keep the antlions and zombies under control at home so chasing us around the wasteland when we weren't really doing too much wasn't a very good investment' she said. 'That gave us the breathing space we needed to get organised and stockpile enough weaponry to really do some harm when the time came' she said as they approached the tunnel.

Noriko turned on the headlights as they entered the tunnel and Shephard noted all the graffiti which had been painted on the sides as they drove on through. A lot of it was written in languages he didn't understand, in fact several different alphabets were used including Cyrillic and what he thought might be Korean, but he guessed it all said basically the same thing about what the people that tagged the concrete walls thought about the Combine and it wasn't exactly complementary.

At the other end of the tunnel the landscape opened up a little more and Shephard wondered if they were nearly there as Noriko slowed down and pulled off the road onto a dirt track. It led down to a shallow but fairly wide stream with a combination gate and dam across it which could be lowered to block the way into another narrow valley but which was currently raised.  
The Scout Car pulled to a halt by the side of the stream and Noriko unbuckled her seatbelt and got out. 'Okay we're nearly there but before we arrive you need to do something' she told Shephard.

'What?' the marine asked, confused.

Noriko pointed at the stream. 'Wash yourself down as best you can in there' she told him. 'If I take you into an enclosed space people are going to gag' she said, crossing her arms.

Shephard looked at the stream, if the water was coming from that snow-capped mountain yonder it was going to be freezing he was certain. 'Couldn't I just grab a shower later?' he asked hopefully.

'You'll be doing that too, I just think it'll be best for all of us if you've had a pre-wash' she told him.

'Hey who are you?' a man yelled down at them from above, Shephard and Noriko turning to look up to see a number of armed men observing them. They must have been guarding this approach to the base Shephard decided.

'Noriko Chijimatsu from Shorepoint' the girl called back. 'I got orders to report here with the scout car' she told them.

'Orders from who?' another of the resistance fighters asked.

'Colonel Cubbage' Noriko answered.

'We weren't told anything about it' the first of the men who had spoken replied.

'Well communications have been crap lately' Noriko pointed out.

'You're right there' the man conceded. 'Why'd you stop?' he queried.

'If you were close enough to smell this guy you'd know' Noriko called back. 'Are you going to get in that water or not?' she added loudly, turning back towards Shephard. 'You can keep your clothes on, your laundry needs dong too.'

'She's only saying that because you're here' Shephard replied just as loudly. 'She was hoping for a private show' he said, putting down his guns and helmet before reluctantly heading into the stream where he sat down and then lay back. He wished that he shared his PCV's indifference to environments as the water hit his skin. 'It's goddamn freezing' he complained.

'Stay there until I say you can get back out' Noriko told him. A minute or two should hopefully improve his aroma enough she decided. 'I hear you guys took out a load of striders' she called up to the men.

'Freeman did most of the strider work but we tagged a couple more with RPG's and took out a few gunships and dropships too' one of the men replied proudly.

'Wish I'd been here' Noriko told them. She was glad they were too far away to get a good view of the thing on Shephard's arm or they might not be so happy to let them head on up towards White Forest.

'We lost a lot of good people doing it though' the resistance fighter told her regretfully. 'Nice wheels' he complemented her ride. 'Couldn't afford the Tau Cannon optional extra?' he joked. Difficulty of manufacture, a perhaps more importantly a shortage of Uranium 235 to power them meant that only a limited number of the weapons were in service.

'I couldn't even afford a windshield' Noriko replied. 'Are you okay in there Shephard' she asked.

'Take a wild guess' he replied, holding his nose and leaning back in the water to submerge his head. Fortunately his hair was cut in a marine "high and tight" so it wasn't long enough to have picked up too much of the sewage, chemicals and alien blood he had swum through or been splattered with.

'That should be enough' Noriko told him once his head cleared the surface again. An annoyed looking Shephard stood up and walked back out of the stream, water running off him as he sat down on the ground by the buggy and began to take off his boots.

'You could at least stop grinning about it' Shephard grumbled as he turned his first boot upside down to pour out the water which had been inside it. 'We might not want to try driving up the stream, the Scout Car is built a little too close to the ground' he noted. 'You don't want to submerge the engine.'

'It'll be fine, it's not too deep' Noriko replied confidently as he emptied his other boot.

'If it's all the same to you I'll grab my pack and walk the rest of the way' Shephard told her.

'If this is your first time here just follow the stream until you reach the track on the right bank that heads on up the hill towards the base' one of the men looking down on them called out. 'It's not too far' he said.

'Are you sure you want to walk?' Noriko asked.

'Yeah I need to stretch my legs anyway and it'll give me a chance to dry off' Shephard replied, getting up and going to retrieve his gear.

'I'll let them know you're on your way' Noriko offered. 'Don't expect them to buy your story all that easily though, it sounds a little scif-fi' she warned.

'Earth has been conquered by aliens that arrived via freaky holes in space coming from another dimension and you think _my_ story sounds like science-fiction' Shephard responded, rolling his eyes as he untied the bungee cord securing his harness and pack to the buggy and put it on his back. 'I'm still taking it on good faith that it's really 2029.'

'Just be grateful you've got that bug on your arm to act as some corroborating evidence' Noriko told him as she climbed into the scout-car, Shephard standing aside to let her go as he now picked up his helmet and weapons. 'See you soon' she said, switching on the motor and rapidly accelerating.

'Heh' Shephard said in satisfaction as she drove into the stream far too fast without thinking about it and was promptly drenched by the great spray the buggy threw up. She screamed as the icy water washed over her and she realised as she stopped why he had chosen to walk instead.

'Oh yeah, meant to say, don't go too fast through the water' Shephard told her, double-timing past the buggy as he ran along the side of the stream. The resistance fighters watching them from above were now roaring with laughter as Noriko tried again, proceeding much more slowly this time.

By the time he eventually reached the resistance base at the top of the hill Shephard had dried off enough that he felt better and the physical exertion had warned him up. The Scout Car was parked up in front of a gate set in a chain-link fence and a suitably large and heavily armed welcoming committee was waiting there for him along with Noriko.

'Hand over your guns' a stern looking black guy that looked like he was in his forties ordered Shephard.

'You'll take my shockroach from my cold dead hands' the marine replied deadpan, unable to resist being a wiseass. 'I'll definitely have to be dead because it just doesn't _come_ off otherwise' he explained, indicating the alien.

'I'll bet Doctor Kleiner will want to take a look at that thing' Noriko said. 'It does seem to be holding on pretty tight' she noted.

Shephard's eyes widened as he stared past the human resistance members at the thing he spotted behind them heading their way from the complex. The shockroach must have picked up on his mood, or at least his elevated heart-rate because it became more active, looking around and perhaps getting ready to fight. 'Okay, now that's different' the HECU Marine commented as the large alien wearing a white labcoat joined the group, the humans stepping aside to let the creature through.

'Did Doctor Magnusson send you out here Uriah?' the man who had ordered Shephard to hand over his guns asked the alien.

'No, the vortessence bade me to come bear witness to the return of he that follows in the wake of The Freeman' Uriah the Vortigaunt replied. 'Many of many races have fallen in battle before The Shephard' the alien continued in its odd accent. 'Even the Shu'ulathoi have knowledge of the ruin he bought down upon one of their most implacable foes and will not treat his return lightly after their grievous mistake in underestimating The Freeman' it declared. 'Victory bathed in blood is the way of The Shephard for as he bled both my kin and the others that tried to come here through the islands of Xen so he will bleed the Combine' it said, almost sadly.

Adrian Shephard sighed as Noriko and the others now stared at him. 'Great' he began sardonically. 'You know you could have laid it on a little less thick so you didn't stick me with a rep that they're going to expect me to live up to now' he complained to the alien. 'You bet that everyone and everything is going to want a piece of our ass now Shannon' he remarked to his shockroach which seemed generally unperturbed by the situation and was just placidly looking around. 'Can someone point me towards wherever your supposed messiah Gordon Freeman is, or if he's not here where me and my bug-bud here can get a beer?' the marine requested hopefully.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_Given the amount of time Adrian Shephard spent wading in and/or swimming through the waste water systems of Black Mesa it seemed likely he wasn't going to be smelling very good. He might be used to it but anyone else he ran into would be likely to object to his less than subtle aroma of sewage, chemicals and alien blood._

_We see that the Reistance had a Tau Cannon (mounted on a Scout Car) in Half Life 2 but given that they would be pretty much ideal for dealing with Hunters (or indeed Striders and Gunships) I'm going with the idea that the nuclear fuel they need to power them isn't available in sufficient quantity for the Resistance to field the weapons in number._

_Uriah the Vortigaunt is the lab assistant of Doctor Arne Magnusson the leader of the White Forest Resistance Base._

_The Nihilanth of Half Life 1 was trying to take over Earth to make it a new home because it was fleeing the Combine (which had already conquered the original home of the Vortigaunts etc). I'm supposing that Race X (also trying to invade Earth fromXen) was another foe of the expanding Combine Empire._


	4. Chapter 4

_The Half Life games and the characters within don't belong to me. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant._

* * *

"_There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion." - _Gen. William Thornson

"_I give the Combine a lot of credit, though. They're tough competitors, a real class act! " - _Resistance Fighter, 2029

* * *

**White Forest Resistance Base – Eastern Europe – Earth under the Combine**

'We've never encountered anything like this "Shockroach" of yours before' Leon, the self-identified Resistance Officer stated as he stood over Adrian Shephard, the marine seated on a low stool in the middle of a small, otherwise empty room with concrete walls, no windows and a rusty steel door that was propped open. The marine's hands were tied behind his back which along with his dripping wet clothes was not improving either his mood or that of the alien clamped on his right forearm. Shephard was still wearing his Powered Combat Vest as it had proven impossible to take the PCV off with the shockroach in place and after debating whether to cut the alien off or not the resistance members had simply opted to stick him in the shower fully clothed and kept it running long after the hot water ran out.

'Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?' Shephard asked sarcastically. 'I already _told_ you that the big bug on my arm wasn't originally from Xen' he said yet again for the benefit of the cretin with the lambda armband on.

'He's correct' another man's voice interrupted from the doorway, Shephard looking over to see a man in perhaps his early sixties with greying brown hair and a powder blue jacket on. 'The creature is likely a Race X weapon according to descriptions I've heard of them' he told the Resistance Officer while glaring at the HECU Marine with barely concealed contempt.

'Never heard of them' Leon responded.

'Doctor Rosenberg mentioned them once, apparently they also attempted to invade Earth via the Border World' the newcomer replied. 'We never encountered them again after the Black Mesa Incident despite the influx of aliens we experienced consequently due to the Portal Storms' he said. 'I've no idea why they stopped' he admitted.

'They stopped because _I_ stopped them' Shephard stated. 'There was this big ugly mother which I guess was in charge and I kicked its ass' he said proudly. 'Had to kick the ass of a lot of its grunts first though' he added.

'The Black Mesa Incident was twenty years ago' Leon the Resistance Officer noted doubtfully. 'You couldn't have been long out of diapers' he told Shephard.

'Which brings me back to asking if IQ's dropped while I was away because I _also_ already told you that some portal-opening weirdo with an agenda yanked my ass out of Black Mesa back in 2009 and the next thing I knew I was on the other side of the world and it was 2029' Shephard responded, rolling his eyes. 'Maybe it was time travel or maybe he froze me or something?' the marine suggested, 'Fact is, I really don't have a fucking clue' he admitted.

'Time travel' Leon repeated with a snort of derision. 'You're not buying this are you Doctor Magnusson?' he asked the other man.

The older man, "Magnusson", frowned. 'If it wasn't for the fact we _have_ experienced temporal dislocation during our teleporter experiments I'd be more dismissive' he said. 'For that matter our guest's mysterious reappearance after two decades, during which he hasn't seemed to have aged, does dovetail intriguingly with the return of Doctor Freeman.'

Leon looked at Shephard again. 'Sounds like bullshit to me' he said. 'Did you take a look at the other gear he had with him?' he asked.

'I did and along with his uniform the equipment does tally with his story' Magnusson said. 'Although I must confess the memories thrown up by seeing a Powered Combat Vest again are distasteful.'

Shephard frowned now himself. 'You've seen a PCV before?' he queried, it was top-secret military technology after all. 'When?'

'Originally when I helped design it' Magnusson replied. 'Or to be more precise I was brought in as a consultant to the team that was assigned the task of producing the PCV based upon technology developed by me for the HEV Mark III project' he said. 'I might be more proud of my accomplishments in helping them perfect the design if I hadn't later witnessed a murderous bunch of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals wearing them slaughter my friends and colleagues' he snarled at Shephard.

'You were there in New Mexico when everything went to hell' Shephard realised. He might have been more surprised if his life recently had been less strange but as it was he took the news in his stride.

'I was at Black Mesa' Magnusson confirmed with a nod. 'Did you have fun gunning down innocent civilians?' he asked rhetorically, his expression one of obvious hatred for the marine.

Shephard looked the scientist directly in the eyes. 'The only civilians I killed had fucking aliens clamped on their heads' he replied coldly, angered by the accusation he was a murderer. 'The HECU was sent to Black Mesa to help the security teams there bring the situation under control as per our standing orders.'

'Containment, what a wonderful euphemism for a government cover-up based upon massacring all the witnesses' Magnusson responded. 'I suppose you're going to claim that I didn't see what the military did with my own two eyes too?' he asked, sneering.

'That was Black Ops _not_ the HECU' Shephard replied firmly, certain he was correct. 'Those sons-of-bitches didn't just kill your friends they killed _mine_ too' he informed Magnusson. 'Look, the situation on the ground was already well on its way to being a total clusterfuck by the time I came to, and I'll admit a few of my guys might have maybe gotten a little trigger-happy what with all the alien monsters running around' he conceded, remembering how things had been in Fallujah where civilians had been killed occasionally by accident during the heat of battle, 'but the United States Marine Corps are _not_ murderers' he vehemently denied.

'What do you mean by "came to"?' Leon queried.

'My Osprey was shot down just as my platoon was about to arrive at Black Mesa as part of the second wave of troops' Shephard explained. 'Someone dragged me out of the wreckage unconscious and a civilian doctor patched me up' he said. 'I was out for a few hours and by the time I was back on my feet the situation was already way beyond FUBAR' he said. 'When I got to a radio and tried to find out what was going on I was told we were pulling out.'

'And then what?' Leon asked.

'After that I fought my way through Black Mesa, killed hundreds of aliens, a few dozen Black ops, travelled back and forth to another dimension a few times and I saved the world' Shephard told him. 'I guess from the state it's in now, someone else must have dropped the ball after I was taken out of the game' he couldn't resist adding.

Magnusson turned to Leon. 'I've heard enough of this' he said. 'Just keep him locked up while we decide what to do with him and his pet' he said, turning to leave.

'I won't bother asking for an attorney but could you at least untie me so I can get the circulation back in my hands?' Shephard requested.

'Not with that thing on your arm' Leon replied as Magnusson walked out.

'Okay but when I need to take a leak whoever has to help me with that might not like getting the assignment' the Marine Corporal warned him as the Resistance Officer followed the scientist out of the room and closed the door behind him. 'I guess I'm sleeping on the floor then' he said getting up off the stool to stretch his legs.

From what Shephard had seen of it when they marched him inside, disarmed him, took the rest of his stuff and then insisted he took a _long_ shower White Forest Base had originally been a Cold War bunker complex. There were indications of recent fighting in some of the corridors, with a large number of bullet holes and scorch-marks on the walls, but for the most part the dilapidated condition of the place could be mostly put down to age and lack of maintenance rather than combat.

After pacing around the improvised cell for a while in order to try and warm up Shephard eventually sat back down on the stool. 'You know eventually I guess they'll want to take my PCV which means either you get cut off or my arm does Shan' he told the shockroach. 'Seems like you're one-of-a-kind so I guess I'm going to end up a south-paw by default' he supposed fatalistically.

Five minutes later and with nothing else to do than think the reality of the situation began to sink in. He had no idea if his parents or his little sister were still alive, and if she was his kid sister would look more than fifteen years older than him by now he realised. For a moment he wondered if she had gotten married in the meantime and if he was now possibly an uncle but then he recalled Noriko mentioning that the Combine had done something to stop women getting pregnant.

The door opened again and a man and a woman entered, both wearing similar garb and green woollen hats. The man had an MP7 which he pointed at Shephard and the woman had a tray with a steaming bowl of something on it. 'Don't try anything or I'll blow your head off' the man warned.

'If that's my dinner you'll need to untie me' Shephard told them.

'No, I'm supposed to feed you' the woman said nervously, putting the tray down in front of him picking up a spoon. 'It's Antlion broth' she said.

'I've no idea what that is so I'll just ask if that's what _you_ eat' Shephard checked he wasn't being given pet food or something.

'Yes, it's not too bad' the woman replied. 'Better than headcrab stew anyway' she told him.

Shephard grimaced. 'You people eat those things?' he asked with distaste. 'I wouldn't feed one to my bug' he said. 'Talking of which you'll also need to feed Shannon too at some point' he told her. 'The only thing I know he eats for certain are Snickers Bars' he said. 'There were a few in my pack.'

'I haven't seen a Snickers Bar in twenty years!' the woman exclaimed, she looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties and would have been a kid when the world went to hell Shephard surmised, and if she'd been eating zombie-creating aliens since he could understand her enthusiasm for a fondly remembered piece of her childhood.

'He only usually eats half so you can split it with him if you like' Shephard offered, turning around on the stool so they could see the shockroach. 'The mouth is the hole that has teeth' he told her. 'You _don't_ want to get that wrong' he advised seriously.

'It's watching me' the woman said in wonderment as the shockroach looked her over with mild interest.

'Shan's always on the lookout for a pretty girl' Shephard replied. 'Bug after my own heart.'

'This is my wife' the man told him in a manner that indicated he didn't appreciate any continued flirting going on.

'Then I guess you were too' Shephard responded, turning around on the stool again. 'Doesn't smell too bad at least' he said of the broth as the woman spooned some up and lifted it to his mouth. 'Damn that's hot' he said, sticking out his tongue after swallowing the first spoonful. The broth was absolutely scalding.

'I'm sorry' the woman apologised. 'Um... I could blow on it' she offered.

Shephard tried to keep a straight face. 'Best offer I've had in years but not with your husband standing there holding a machine-pistol' he replied causing her to blush bright red as she realised what she'd said. 'Come on dude that was funny, lighten up' he told the man who had glared at Shephard for a moment. 'Just spoon it from the edge it'll be fine' he told the woman.

'Get a move on Josephine' the man told his wife impatiently.

'I'm sorry, he's not usually so stern' the woman, Josephine, apologised to Shephard as she resumed feeding him the broth.

'That's okay' Shephard replied after swallowing the second spoonful, at least it was better than some of the crap the Corps had fed him on in the field on occasion he decided, getting used to the strange taste.

Shephard had nearly finished the broth when his meal was interrupted by the sudden wail of sirens echoing down the corridor outside. 'Oh My God' the woman gasped, dropping the spoon. 'They're attacking again' she said in horror.

'Maybe I should have warned you about what tends to happen to people shortly after I meet them recently' Shephard said apologetically. 'Also if you know a girl named Noriko tell her to keep her head down' he requested.

'What the hell are you talking about?' the man hissed at the marine.

'Just giving you fair warning' Shephard told him.

Another man, this one wearing a bandana appeared at the doorway and stuck his head inside the room. 'Combine troops spotted moving towards us' he said. 'Get to your stations' he ordered.

'But we haven't seen any aircraft' Josephine responded, clearly starting to panic.

'We think they're from the City 16 Garrison' the man with the bandana told her. 'They probably travelled by train to near St Olga and marched the rest of the way' he said. 'No Striders so far but they've got Hunters with them and there's a couple of hundred Overwatch backed by at least that many CP's' he said. 'Sneaky bastards drew off most of our perimeter defence with a feint, sent a couple of platoons towards White Forest from another direction and then retreated after a short firefight' he said. 'Half our guys decided we had them on the run, broke ranks and went after them, falling straight into an ambush.'

'Well so far I'm more impressed by their grasp of tactics than I am your discipline' Shephard commented disparagingly. Getting suckered by a feigned retreat was an amateur mistake and so was falling for a diversionary attack.

Josephine turned to her husband. 'What are we going to do Steve?' she asked him, increasingly distraught. 'The only thing that stopped the last two attacks was Doctor Freeman and you know he left in that helicopter yesterday' she said. 'We're all going to die' she said, starting to cry.

Shephard coughed to attract everyone's attention. 'I won't say anything about the defeatist attitude, other than to drop it right now because it'll get you killed,' he began once they were looking at him again, 'but if someone wants to untie me then I can probably help' he said. 'If some geek in an orange suit of armour can kick their asses then I sure as hell can' he said confidently.

'Freeman is a one man army' the resistance fighter with the bandana on replied dismissively.

Adrian Shephard stood up. 'Which would make _me_ a one-man-and-his-bug-army' he said. 'Which do you think is more dangerous?'

'Ignore him, lock him up and get to your posts' the man with the bandana told the married couple before disappearing.

'It's your funeral' Shephard responded, shrugging as best he could with his hands tied behind his back and sitting back down. 'I'll be here if you change your minds.'

Josephine blinked and wiped the tears from her eyes. 'Uriah talked about him like he was special right' she remarked to her husband, 'that he'd bleed the Combine or something?'

'The Vortigaunts don't always get things right' her husband Steve replied, shooing her out of the door. 'If they did the Combine wouldn't have conquered them in the first place' he reasoned logically as they left the room together and locked the door behind them.

'You're keeping your MVP out of the game' Shephard called out loudly before sighing. 'We just don't get the respect or recognition we deserve Shannon' he addressed his shockroach sadly, the insectoid alien appearing to respond with a series of clicks. 'Yep, there ain't no justice' Shephard agreed.

Before too long the marine started to hear explosions in the distance which got gradually louder as the fighting got closer to the base. Then the sound of gunfire and shouting became mixed in, the volume of the shooting climbing rapidly as the attacking force closed in likely using their superior numbers to overwhelm the defenders.

Shephard looked up at the door when he heard the scrape of a rusty bolt being pulled back, he jumped to his feet and prepared to shoulder charge whoever it was on the other side because he had no intention of dying in this damn cell but as the door swung open and he saw two familiar faces he held back on barging them aside. 'Is this a rescue?' he asked.

'Kinda, we're _really_ hoping you can rescue us' Noriko replied dropping Shephard's equipment harness and gear onto the floor. 'I thought you might need this' she said. 'Found it all in the armoury, the guard got sent to help defend Silo 2 so I just walked in and took it.'

'Steve is fighting, he told me to hide' Josephine told Shephard, voice trembling 'but I went to find Noriko instead' she continued. 'Please help my husband' she begged.

'Combat knife attached to the harness there' Shephard indicated with a nod towards it before turning around. 'Just cut the rope not me or the bug okay?'

Josephine took the knife and cut him free. 'They've already managed to get inside' she told the marine. 'I heard someone screaming about Hunters in the upper levels' she said. 'You _can_ kill them right?' she checked.

'Sure' Shephard replied confidently, turning around and rubbing his wrists. 'But while I put on my gear could one of you explain what a Hunter is' he requested, bending down to pick up his ammunition harness. 'Also how do I recognise the bad guys generally?' he queried, putting the LC-2 webbing gear on.

Josephine and Noriko looked at each other. 'Why is he so sure he can kill a Hunter if he doesn't even know what one is?' the former asked, nonplussed.

'Because I've never met an alien I couldn't kill yet' Shephard said brightly, starting to check his weapons were loaded, starting with his Desert Eagle. 'It's like some kind of talent I never knew I had until I really needed it' he told them, returning his magnum automatic to its holster and moving onto his HECU-Issue MP5 submachine-gun.

'Please let this not be ego or insanity' Noriko pleaded to the heavens. 'Okay, to start with a Hunter is this cyborg thing with three legs that's about yay high...' she began, holding out her hand to indicate the size of the creature.

The Hunter Combat Synth was one of the most effective and justifiably feared creations of Combine Military Science. With armour optimised against pulse fire or high-velocity projectiles it was tough enough that even a direct hit from weaponry that could stop a APC wasn't always enough to kill one, moreover it was far more intelligent than opponents tended to think being able to follow orders and seek out and destroy specific targets.

Once the Overwatch was able to breach the top of Silo 2 using explosives they had sent in a few elite troops to secure their forced entryway and then a larger force of regular infantry and Civil Protection was sent in to start taking the building floor by floor. Ahead of them however a pair of Hunters with orders to track down and kill or disable the two resistance scientists known to be at White Forest were dispatched into the bunker complex and they ruthlessly slew their way through the rebels, most of whom were now only rear-echelon personnel armed with near-ineffectual pistols or MP7's.

'I shouldn't be here' a resistance member wearing a beige shirt and holding a CP issue USP Match automatic in his hands nervously told the man next to him behind the improvised barricade they had set up in a corridor while waiting for the Combine to penetrate this far into the facility. 'I'm only a radio operator' he complained. 'I wish I had an AR3 not this thing' he added, waving the handgun about.

'For the last time there is _no such thing_ as an AR3' the other resistance fighter replied through gritted teeth. He was the base weapons instructor and had been trying to train the latest batch of recruits drifting in from City 17 when the attack started. 'Anyhow I thought you could tear Hunters apart with your bare hands so what are you worried about?' he asked sarcastically.

'Those were _City_ Hunters' the radio operator responded. 'I haven't learned the moves of _Countryside_ Hunters yet' he persisted with his extremely dubious claims. 'But once I've seen a few of them in action I'll be tearing ten or twenty apart every day again like before' he lied.

The instructor groaned, why couldn't I have ended up stuck with someone else he wondered? 'I've only got the one dark-energy round so you'd better figure out their moves fast because after I take out the first Hunter they'll be all over our ass' he said, taking aim with his AR2 Pulse Rifle. The pulses themselves would be of little help against the synths, they weren't much more dangerous or effective than conventional bullets, but the built-in dark-energy ball launcher on the alien-tech assault rifle was a different matter. It was only a pity the ammunition for the launchers was always in such short supply because the Resistance mainly relied on captured weaponry and only Elite Overwatch soldiers carried launcher ammo.

With a screech of what might be challenge or anger the first Hunter appeared down the corridor and spotted the two resistance fighters behind their flimsy barricade. Before it could launch a salvo of the vicious charged fléchettes which it carried as long-range armament the weapons instructor demonstrated why he had been given that assignment and fired the launcher on his AR2 first.

The sphere of dark-energy streaked through the air and impacted the Hunter right in the centre of its combination torso and head. For a moment with energy crackling around it the Hunter seemed to lift into the air but then it disintegrated, leaving nothing behind. 'Gottcha' the weapon instructor said with satisfaction although his elation was short-lived as a second Hunter appeared. 'Shit' he swore, 'open fire' he ordered, holding down the trigger of his AR2.

Able to soak up several thirty-round magazines of pulse-rounds before going down the Hunter shrugged off the onslaught of fire and fired its fléchette launchers back at the resistance fighters who managed to duck just before the things ploughed into their barricade and practically tore it apart. 'The bullets just bounce off!' the radio operator shrieked as he realised just how useless his pistol was against something like this.

'No shit' the instructor replied as his AR2 ejected the first thirty-round power-pack he had already expended and automatically loaded another.

Fixated on the enemies in front of it the Hunter failed to register another threat until it was too late but the instructor and the radio operator got an excellent view of some lunatic jumping out from nowhere wearing bulky body-armour and holding something high above his head that they realised was a old red-painted pipe-wrench when he brought it crashing down on the Hunter's head.

Although extremely tough and resilient to gunfire, inside the Hunter was still organic and the jarring blow rattled its brain around its skull like a boxer receiving a full-strength punch to head. Totally dazed it staggered to the left before a second swinging blow from the pipe-wrench hit it squarely in the face where its eyes and sensors were located, disorientating the synth even more. 'Ooh-rah!' the maniac with the wrench yelled in triumph as the Hunter collapsed.

'It's not dead yet' the instructor yelled out a warning.

The man with the wrench dropped it and pulled a large handgun, bending down he pushed the gun-barrel right into the Hunter's face and pulled the trigger twice, the supersonic magnum rounds going straight through the now shattered plastic which had once protected the sensors and into the cyborgs brain. 'Bet it is now' the man wagered as the Hunter stopped moving.

Holstering his pistol again and reaching behind himself to yank free a SPAS-12 pump-action shotgun from where it had been secured to his backpack with Velcro the stranger pumped a shell into the chamber. 'Wait there for a minute' he told the resistance fighters after taking a look at the pistol one of them was carrying as his sole weapon before heading off in the direction the synth had come from.

'I forgot to mention that back in City 17 we always carried a pipe wrench when we fought hunters' the radio operator spoke up. 'I left mine there' he continued as the weapon instructor turned towards him. 'With my AR3' he added just before the sound of a shotgun going off followed by a high-pitched electronic tone informed the world that a Civil Protection Officer had just gotten his head blown off.

More shotgun blasts, yelling, screaming, automatic gunfire and a shouted plea for more backup abruptly ended by a single report of the magnum automatic was followed shortly thereafter by the guy with the body armour and helmet on walking back towards them. He was now carrying an AR2 in each hand and had a third hanging by a strap over his shoulder where it was bouncing up against a smaller SMG also hanging there. His armour was now scorch-marked by pulse-fire and what looked like tiny dents from bullets bouncing off it but the man himself looked unharmed and entirely too chipper. 'Try this instead' he suggested to the radio operator, throwing him one of the AR2's which the technician caught awkwardly, nearly dropping his pistol in the process. 'Come on guys, you know what they say; lead, follow or get out of the way' he told them, grinning before turning and heading off towards the sound of gunfire.

'Aren't you that guy Uriah made the fuss about?' the instructor asked, he had heard the story and the alien on the man's arm was a fairly big clue.

'Corporal Adrian Shephard, Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, United States Marine Corps' the man confirmed, breaking into double-time. 'So are you coming or not?' he asked.

The weapon instructor thought about it. 'Screw it' he said eventually. 'Follow Shephard' he told the radio operator, before running to catch up with the marine himself.

* * *

**_Note from the Author:_**

_Leon was the Resistance Leader at Shorepoint Base. He's relocated to White Forest along with quite a lot of other resistance fighters now that City 17 has been destroyed._

_Doctor Arne Magnusson is the leader of White Forest and another former member of the Black Mesa science team (more of them apparently survived than you might expect). The HECU were in fact involved in some fairly horrible actions regarding the Black Mesa civilians but Shephard never received those orders (their commanding officer was killed before it could be issued to Shephard's squad) and wasn't involved. He did see Black Ops soldiers killing civilians (and US Marines too) as part of their containment operation so Shephard assumes Magnusson is just blaming the wrong people._

_Josephine and Steve are just names I've given the "Consoling Couple" who we see several times in Half-Life 2 including at White Forest by which time they've joined the resistance (she's the nervous, despairing sort)._

_The weapon instructor and the radio operator are involved in a very funny conversation/argument Gordon Freeman witnesses at White Forest Base regarding the mythical AR3 and hand-to-hand combat with Hunter Synths. I just had to include them in the story! The non-mythical AR2, otherwise known as the Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle (OSIPR) is a decent weapon and can fire dark-energy balls that are very useful against Hunters. The other hand-weapons used by the Combine (and Resistance) like the MP7 and the USP Match Pistol are really not much help against the combat synths._

___While the signature weapon of Gordon Freeman (and the Half-Life series in general) is a Crowbar, Adrian Shephard carries two melee weapons. These are his USMC Combat Knife and a very large and heavy Pipe Wrench he picked up at Black Mesa. The wrench deals considerably more damage than a crowbar, especially if swung with full force._


End file.
